Optimum Violence

I have an acquaintance who, while billing himself a "Constitutional conservative," favors a strong nation-state and views both radical decentralization and centralization movements as threats to individual liberty. While no fan of Lincoln, he believes the Illuminati instigated Southern secession. 

He expresses little sympathy for the War for Southern Independence. It was all part of a plot to undermine the American republic. Is this position common among Constitutionalists?